From shiny shirts on sportscasters to the pajama-clad fans with painted faces, the NFL doesn’t have the reputation of being the most fashionable sports league out there. Helping to change that are teams like the New England Patriots, which not only play host to some of the most style-savvy athletes but also showcase the team’s weekly ensembles in a “Best Dressed” gallery on their official website. (Good luck trying to find that on any other NFL team’s site.) Leading the push on the Pats is wide receiver Julian Edelman, whose résumé includes not only a Super Bowl–winning play but also a John Varvatos campaign. His latest endeavor sees him bringing some of his fashion sense to the NFL—and its fans—in a new campaign for the league’s updated apparel line meant to be paired with suits, jogging pants, and (an Edelman favorite) sleek sneakers.

“I like looking at clothes, and I like going to shows and seeing new, fashion-forward stuff,” says Edelman over the phone from Boston, where he’s practicing for this Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. “So when they approached me with this, I thought it was a great idea because it’s part of my work—it’s part of who I am. Why can’t we make NFL apparel cool for every day instead of only wearing it on game day?”

The 29-year-old’s interest in fashion is long-standing, having really come into its own once he joined the Patriots in 2009 and found his teammates pushing the limits of sports-star style. “You’ve got old-man Brady,” he says with a laugh, referring to the team’s fashionable quarterback. “Tom brings the fire every week when we take our away trips with how he dresses. I like his simplicity and his timeless, classic approach. Devin McCourty, he’s got his own style, he always wears a nice fitted suit and mixes up his colors. He’s got some game when it comes to the fashion world. Patrick Chung is another guy that knows how to dress well. He’s always got some cool suits on. He’s kind of a sneakerhead.”

“Danny Amendola, he’s got his own little flair,” Edelman says of the Pats’s wide receiver, whose taste is most akin to his own. “He’s got that whole alternative look. I’m a fan of how he dresses and his style. He’s very original. It’s kind of like that John Varvatos look—rugged, cool—he definitely knows how to dress.”

But perhaps the person with the most unique outfits in Gillette Stadium is coach Bill Belichick, a man equally famous for leading the team to four Super Bowl wins as he is for exclusively wearing sweatshirts with custom-cut, three-quarter sleeves to every game, regardless of temperature. “You know Coach—he’s fashion-forward,” Edelman deadpans. “He sets the tempo; he sets the trends when he cuts off all his hoodies.” Edelman might be joking, but one look at the cropped hoodies at Kanye West’s recent Yeezy collection and you start to think Belichick is onto something. “I was thinking the exact same thing with what [Kanye’s] been wearing to all the award shows!” Edelman says, adding with a laugh, “I guess he may have had the inspiration from coach Belichick.”

For his own wardrobe, Edelman favors Ermenegildo Zegna suits cut slim in the leg to show off his shoes, and of-the-moment streetwear from brands like Kith and Public School, which he buys on trips to Soho in New York City. As a spokesperson for Puma, he recommends a pair of “suedes” with an NFL tee as off-duty attire, though Edelman is also keen on Common Projects’s simple leather sneakers. His taste is far more specific than that of his campaign counterpart, the Green Bay Packers’s wide receiver Jordy Nelson, a nonchalant jeans-and-tee kind of guy, but Edelman’s affinity for current trends is still relatable to the NFL’s massive fan base. To those looking to achieve a look akin to his own, Edelman advises: “You can never go wrong with a pair of jeans, a cool tailored shirt, and a nice jacket. You can dress it up with a more stylish jacket, or a bracelet, watch, or necklace. It’s simple, but it’s cool. That’s my opinion.” Keep your eyes on the stands to see if the Edelman influence rubs off.